Tim Worstall

The Children’s Database

Another mess in the making:


The database, which goes live next year, is to contain details of every one of
the 11 million children in the country, listing their name, address and
gender, as well as contact details for their GP, school and parents and
other carers. The record will also include contacts with hospital
consultants and other professionals, and could show whether the child has
been the subject of a formal assessment on whether he or she needs extra
help.


It will be available to an estimated 330,000 vetted users. Some of those
allowed to check records, such as head teachers, doctors, youth offender and
social workers, are uncontroversial, but critics have questioned why other
potential users, such as fire and rescue staff, will have access to the
database.

330,000 people with access? That’ll be nice and secure then, eh?

In

8 responses

  1. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    The fact that the politicians won’t allow their own kids’ records to be on the system tells us all we need to know.

    Reply
  2. Kay Tie Avatar
    Kay Tie

    Ed’s right: would seem to be to be a tacit admission that the database is indeed insecure. Thus a tacit admission that it breaches the Human Rights Act (right to liberty and security, right to respect for private life).
    I’ve said it before, and I think it is worth repeating: the HRA is the one piece of legislation that retards New Labour’s authoritarian tendencies. Thank God it was New Labour that introduced it, since if it was Tory legislation it would be abolished.

    Reply
  3. chris Avatar
    chris

    We’re assuming that it is the number of users that will cause the main security hole (don’t get me wrong I expect it to be cracked within weeks by the usual social engineering route). This assumes that there is a security model, given the MTAS fiasco that might not be such a good assumption to make.

    Reply
  4. JuliaM Avatar
    JuliaM

    “This assumes that there is a security model, given the MTAS fiasco that might not be such a good assumption to make.”
    But surely they will have ‘learned lessons’..? After all, they are always telling us they have….

    Reply
  5. IanP Avatar
    IanP

    2010 is coming.
    Like all the new government databases, security and privacy is a secondary concern, and the ruling elite and their funding cabal will be excluded from them all.
    Like communism, they are just for the masses.

    Reply
  6. Chuckl Avatar
    Chuckl

    But surely they will have ‘learned lessons’..? After all, they are always telling us they have….
    To paraphrase Peter Cook – Yes they have learned the lessons, and they can repeat them exactly.

    Reply
  7. DocBud Avatar
    DocBud

    “Some of those allowed to check records, such as head teachers, doctors, youth offender and social workers, are uncontroversial”. Not in my book they’re not. Just one more reason we shall not be returning to the UK anytime soon. (Yes, we obviously are guilty and have something to hide).

    Reply
  8. Agammamon Avatar
    Agammamon

    Exactly, If anyone’s to have access to that info, I’d much rather it be emergency services people than social workers – and this is coming from a guy whose life was made a hell of a lot better by CPS intervention at an early age.

    Reply

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